Verner Panton’s Green Room

Modernists may use green sparingly, but Verner Panton never bought much into the concept of spare—especially when the subject was interior design The creator of some of the most dizzyingly bombastic interiors ever, the Danish great composed what is, arguably, the most famous green room of the Mid Century era, with his 1969 design — Continue reading …

Modernists may use green sparingly, but Verner Panton never bought much into the concept of spare—especially when the subject was interior design The creator of some of the most dizzyingly bombastic interiors ever, the Danish great composed what is, arguably, the most famous green room of the Mid Century era, with his 1969 design for the lobby of the German publishing house Spiegel Verlagshaus.

Though comprising only one section of his full-throttle interior scheme for Speigel’s Hamburg headquarters, Panton’s all-green lobby stood in striking contrast to the plethora of reds and oranges, pinks and purples he employed liberally elsewhere on the premises (read about the brief life of Spiegel’s Panton-designed swimming pool here), its leafy greens almost plush and subdued compared to his trademark lustrous brights.

Tactile and sumptuous to the hilt—with every element, from lighting to textiles to bespoke ceiling and wall claddings conceived by the designer, Warren Platner’s elegantly ornamental furniture being an inspired exception—Spiegel’s green lobby, now long gone, remains tantalizingly alive in the few photographs that exist, still laying claim to our imaginations. Eye-popping in its monochromatic elegance and visual extravagance, impossibly glamorous and wildly inventive, Verner Panton’s green room survives as an emblem of a bygone era—and the singular mind that gave it expression.